Gyles Brandreth had brought together 100 players to play in the first ever National Scrabble Championship in June of 1971 and with help from Leonard Hodge, who worked for J W Spear & Sons and co-organised this event, Mike and Reg sought permission to write to the participants and invite them to form the "Greater London Scrabble League".
The first season was comprised of 32 members split into two groups:
Achilles; Miss S Benjamin, Mr Skinner, Mr I Gordon, Miss K Menon, Mr M R Goldman, Mr R H Ganley, Mrs A Phillips, Rev T Dalton, Miss M Dalton, Mrs E Spiro, Mr N Kay, Mrs M Forrester, Miss S B Peters, Mrs S Hyams, Mrs S F Hockey, Mr D Quilter.
Boadicea; Mrs A P Woolf, Mr and Mrs Lane, Miss R Birch, Mrs R G Newmark, Mrs S Elias, Mr R W Lever, Mrs E Kay, Mrs R Lever, Mr H C Kay, Mr L Phillips, Miss J Jones, Dr K Dalton, Miss K George, Mrs R Grainger, Mrs G Stokes.
For the September-December 1972 season there were 31 and were grouped:
Achilles; Miss S Benjamin, Miss C Bursill, Miss D Clayton, Mr P Dean, Mrs S Elias, Mr R Ganley, Mrs R Grainger, Miss C Jakes, Mr N Kay, Mrs E Kay, Mrs R Lever, Mr R Lever, Miss K Menon, Mrs R G Newmark, Mrs S Peters and Mr Skinner.
Boadicea; Mr R D Bowman, Mr R Crolla, Dr K Dalton, Miss Dalton, Mrs Downie, Mr M Goldman, Mrs S F Hockey, Mrs S Hyams, Miss J Jones, Mr H C Kay, Mrs Lane, Mr C F J Magnus, Mrs P MacBean, Mr W Plinge and Mrs S Spiro.
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| Gyles Brandreth | Leonard Hodge | Mr M Goldman | Mrs S F Hockey | Mrs P MacBean | Mr P Dean |
At this stage the earliest list of permitted two letter words were listed with the address list for the Sept-Dec 1972 fixtures:
ad, ae, at, as, am, an, at, ax, ay, be, bo, by, da, do, ea, eh, el, em, en, er, ex, fa, fy, go, gu, ha, he, hi, ho, id, if, in, io, is, it, jo, ka, la, li, lo, ma, me, mi, mo, my, na, no, ob, od, oe, of, oh, on ,oo, or, os, ow, ox, oy, pa, pi, po, re, si, sh, so, ta, te, ti, to, un, up, us, ut, we, wo, ye, yo, yu, zo.
(pencilled additions/omissions were: ai, (for the first 'at') ee, ky, and ur).
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the London Scrabble League each current member was given a pin badge. Click on picture for a bigger image.
©2006 Mauro Pratesi